Thumbs up

Cynthia Bowers of CBS’s ‘Sunday Morning’ has an inspiring piece on Roger Ebert, the famed film critic who lost his voice to cancer three years ago. 

A snip:

CBS Photo

He’s been called America’s movie critic. For more than four decades, Roger Ebert has guided our choices at the box office.

His syndicated newspaper column and trademark “thumbs up/thumbs down” routine with TV partner Gene Siskel were legendary.

But now that famous voice has been silenced.

“Do you remember what your last spoken words were?” asked Bowers.

“No, because I didn’t know they would be my last words, or I would have written something great,” Ebert replied.

For the past three years, Ebert has been talking via a computer voice that speaks what he types.

His lower jaw is gone, ravaged by cancer that nearly killed him.

“Are you able to talk in your dreams?” Bowers asked.

“Everything is fine in my dreams. I talk all I want. Life is normal,” he said. “Sometimes in a dream I will remember that I can’t speak, but then suddenly I can speak again.”

Ebert could surely never have dreamed this storyline for his life when he began at the Chicago Sun-Times back in 1967. His elegant style and wit quickly made his movie reviews must-reads.

And what makes a movie great to Roger Ebert?

“I feel it,” he replied. “It fills me with joy for its greatness. When I experience it, I sometimes even feel a tingle in my spine. Honestly, it’s an almost spiritual feeling.”

…

America’s movie critic is back. He sees as many as ten films a week and debuts a new version of his TV show later this month. And instead of shying away from the public and the way he looks, Roger is embracing it.

“I said, ‘The hell with it – this is how I look,’” he said. “People with problems like mine should get on with their lives and not hide because of it. I don’t want to look this way, but I do, so please don’t make it your problem.”

Much more – including video clips - here.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 44 new posts, not bad for a blog that’s less than two months old! There were 91 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 25mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was December 10th with 345 views. The most popular post that day was Send the pope a Christmas message.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were catholicreview.org, facebook.com, twitter.com, littlesistersofthepoorbaltimore.org, and whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for christmas greetings, old christmas cards, christmas message, old christmas card, and camauro.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Send the pope a Christmas message December 2010
5 comments

2

Why the pope wore that ‘Santa hat’ November 2010
4 comments

3

‘Christ has no hands but ours’ December 2010
2 comments

4

The Little Sisters of the Poor ain’t no patsies November 2010
2 comments

5

VIDEO REPORT: John Harbaugh on faith and the Ravens December 2010
1 comment

Cardinal Bernardin on the silver screen

A Jesuit priest is turning the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s bestselling “The Gift of Peace” into a movie. Chicago Catholic News has the story:

After sex abuse allegations were recanted against Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in the mid-1990s — and before the cancer that would claim his life was detected — he led a powerful retreat in Mundelein.

“He was emotionally very vulnerable, and somewhat euphoric,” recalled the Rev. Michael Sparough, a Jesuit priest who attended the spiritual gathering.

“He just talked about the trauma and the nightmares he had, and how tremendously stressful this whole thing was, but how the truth was ultimately triumphant.”

“That retreat had a tremendous impact on my life.”

Now, Sparough is leading an effort to bring Bernardin’s story to the silver screen. The 60-year-old priest, who helps run a Barrington retreat center and has written a number of books, is working with two Hollywood script writers to turn Bernardin’s bestseller, The Gift of Peace, into a mainstream feature film.

It’s certainly no done deal, but Sparough said Bernardin’s successor at the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, has given him permission to turn the book into a screenplay. And Sparough believes the public is ready for a story like this.

“It’s a classic hero’s journey, and I think it’s a story that needs to be told in our time — and my hope is it’s a healing story for those who have been wounded by the Church, and a story that will remind us of some of the best parts of our Catholic tradition,” Sparough said.

In recent years, the Church has been mired in scandal over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases in the United States and around the globe. Pedophile priests were transferred rather than stripped of their duties, and allegations that children were molested often weren’t taken seriously.

The irony, Sparough said, is that Bernardin was considered by many to be ahead of his time in developing policies for dealing with problem priests. And that was before he was accused of abusing a man named Steven Cook when Cook was a student years earlier in Cincinnati.

It’s how Bernardin handled those accusations — made in 1993 and later recanted — that really define “the man, and his story and his life is really a parable of contemporary sanctity,” Sparough said.

Read the rest here.